


in which Katniss joins the Careers instead of Peeta:

by mountain-ash and rusted iron (xAmazonWarriorx)



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types
Genre: Canon Divergence, Careers (Hunger Games), District 2 Headcanon, F/F, Katniss Everdeen Joins the Careers, Tags May Change, bullet point fic, endgame clove/katniss, minor au in terms of games training, no beta we die like men, why edit the formatting when i could just put some words on a page and call it done
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-06
Updated: 2020-06-05
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:14:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24565960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xAmazonWarriorx/pseuds/mountain-ash%20and%20rusted%20iron
Summary: Katniss, desperate to get home to her sister, allies with the Career pack. Peeta does not.
Relationships: Clove/Katniss Everdeen
Comments: 2
Kudos: 31





	in which Katniss joins the Careers instead of Peeta:

**Author's Note:**

> feat. capitalization of stuff like Volunteer because capitalized terms are a quality YA dystopia convention that i love
> 
> note that the 'd2 headcanon' tag isn't deeply relevant for this chapter

(Katniss, desperate to get home to her sister, allies with the Career pack.)   
  
  


  * It starts in training, after the Tribute Parade, when Clove directs a practiced Career sneer at the pair from Twelve
  * and Katniss plants her feet squarely and glares back
  * Clove is taken aback by the passion in the other girls’ eyes, and even more taken aback when Katniss steps down from the District Twelve chariot and shoulders past the pair from Two on her way to the elevator.
  * _Interesting_ , she thinks 
  * Katniss spends the first day of training trying to compensate for her lack of short-range fighting options by training exclusively in hand-to-hand and knife fighting.
  * Her sheer determination catches the eye of both the Gamemakers and the Career pack
  * the next day, she speeds through the survival stations, revising everything she already knows and gleaning a handful of tricks from the trainers, before returning to knives and hand-to-hand
  * This time, she throws the knives  
(she’s done this before, a little. it is, after all a safer way to finish off a downed animal from a distance)
  * and she's good. a little rough, a little unpolished, but she has the basics down. knows how to move, the right angle to hold the blade. she only needs practice, refinement, _like cutting and polishing a stone to bring out the shine_ , Clove thinks, because Two is quarries and mountains, everything grounded in the earth, the rough stone and green forests.
  * Clove, showing off at the sword station, sneers, at first, watch the upstart outlier girl who thinks she has skill
  * until she’s distracted by the shift of Katniss’ muscles under her tight training top, and the satisfied look in her eyes when she nails a far-off bullseye on a distant target
  * and Katniss, watches the girl from Two
  * watches the agile dance as she spars with a trainer, the play of light flashing off her sword.
  * watches, the smooth movement as she scales the climbing wall, the flex of her muscles as she grips the next handhold
  * watches, the curve of her thigh and the way she plants her legs when throwing her knives


  * She tells herself she’s looking for knife throwing tips
  * And well, she does learn a little. how to hold her body in different terrain, how to hide the blades in her sleeves, how to throw with a flourish for the cameras
  * But she also learns how the older girl smiles, sharp like the knives she wields.
  * learns the cadence of her voice as she jokes with her allies
  * learns the determination in her gaze as she works to obliterate a training dummy
  * She watches the other Careers as well: all of them 18 year olds, too-pretty, features accentuated with subtle make-up and worked over by Remake, muscled teenagers who move with the ease of a lifetime of training, flirting and laughing and chatting,  
that tips her off, because who’s this happy when there’s a good chance they’ll be dead before the month is out, and she sees through it, just enough to draw her own conclusions. because it’s all just another part of the Games, isn’t it. putting on a show, faking tension and chemistry for the cameras, building up a backstory out of half-truths and white lies.
  * and she thinks of Prim, of _home_ , and how desperately she wants to live. and she knows the odds, knows just how much better the Career’s chances are, yet still understands that even they have only maybe 20% odds of coming home, and they know it. they have to know it, have to have thought about it before they Volunteered. and they still made that choice, for whatever reason. the choice to die, for someone else or for themselves, or for the Capitol. Or, the choice to live. to come home with blood on their hands and haunted eyes, to deal with nightmares and trauma for the rest of their lives. (because she’s seen Haymitch, after all. knows, too, just how much winning the Games can fuck you up.)  
and Katniss understands that choice, a little, all the thought that goes into it. after all, she Volunteered to save Prim, because she loved, no, _loves_ , (she’s not dead yet) her sister enough to risk death. she made that choice, running through options in the split-second she had. and she wouldn’t change it, not now.   

  * they’re all just scared teenagers, after all. scared teenagers who made a choice.  




  * In the end, it’s Katniss who approaches them, the morning of the third day of training   
(it’s now or never - they have three full days of training, a fourth half-day and private sessions with the Gamemakers): 
  * says, without preamble, “I want in. I want to join your alliance.”  
“I think the fuck not, outlier”, sneers the girl from Four, “we don’t ally with the _meat._ ”  
Katniss flinches a little, but she expected this, this harshness, from these beautiful, deadly teenagers, and she has a plan. she’ll earn their respect, because she knows she’s good, and her story so far has captivated the Capitol
  * what she doesn’t expect is Cato, stepping up (because he’s the Pack leader, he calls the shots)
  * “What can you offer us, Twelve?” he says, an undertone of harsh gravel in his voice
  * “Food. Survival. I’m more useful than you’d think”, Katniss’s voice is heated, angry. she burns with it like a banked fire, steady and purposeful.
  * “Give her a chance” says Clove, a lazy smile hiding the intrigue in her tone, the desire in her eyes, because she may be attracted, but she’s not a fool. this is the Games, and they need skills, useful talents, the possibility of sponsors, not just another pretty face.
  * And so, Katniss shows off:  
speeding through the agility course, tying the most complex snares she knows, breezing through the edible plants testing. she even skims over the first aid station, patching up simulated injuries with careful hands - she’s seen her mother and sister do this enough time, she can’t always escape the house just because there’s a patient, it’s not possible or practical, in the middle of winter, to walk out into the howling wind just because she’s squicked out. instead she had to toughen up, to learn, to help. they always need an extra pair of hands.
  * and then Katniss goes to the weapons stations. takes out mechanical enemies with knives, thrown to damage strategic points (she’s a healer’s daughter, after all, and healers know how to kill, too), spins and ducks and dodges the trainers at the hand-to-hand station, slipping out of holds and landing blows strengthened by powerful shoulder muscles



  * at lunch, she’s invited to sit with the Career pack. (Peeta watches, from his table, alone)  
  

  * and just like that, Katniss is in. she’s part of the Career pack now. 
  * there’s no turning back. her chances are better with the Careers. and, what’s more, they’ll kill her out of revenge if she ditches them, hunt her down with that special sort of determination that comes from betrayal, of trusting and being abandoned. she won’t survive real combat against all of them at once. there’s no turning back



**Author's Note:**

> funnily enough the Careers aren't all evil and bloodthirsty. but they _are_ trained killers.
> 
> hoping to continue this, will take a while to update though


End file.
